First BHETA B&Q ‘Meet the Buyer’ day hailed a success

BHETA’s first Meet the Buyer day with B&Q has been hailed a great success by both parties.

The event took place on January 14th at the Hilton Hotel in Chilworth, Southampton and 12 members of the B&Q buying team attended.

84 twenty minute appointments took place covering all categories from heavyside DIY to garden to housewares. 55 companies were able to present their ideas to the buying team in response to a brief which focussed on new and innovative products and also innovative packaging ideas.

In particular, B&Q was looking for:
• Products / kits that make the job easier for customers
• Products that sell well in other hardware retailers around the world
• Any areas where a gap in the current offerings from B&Q can be addressed

The day was aimed at all sizes of potential supplier and to facilitate the listing process, BHETA partnered with Birmingham Innovations Ltd in the role of potential distributor. For the successful companies on the day there is no listing fee and a B&Q online presence represents the quickest to market option with trading within 14 weeks a possibility. B&Q online is currently achieving four million hits a week and is the fastest growing part of the business. For those suppliers selected to go straight into store, retail opportunities are expected to go live by August.

BHETA’s home improvement sector director, Paul Grinsell commented, “This was a great day. It was the first time we have worked with B&Q in this way and the mutual benefits of ‘Meet the Buyer’ for all parties was plain to see. I am very hopeful that further such opportunities can now be organised and I know there will be no shortage of interest.”

David Lennon added, “Overall the day was a great success. It’s the first time that B&Q has launched anything like this and the energy around the day from both the suppliers and the B&Q buying teams was really encouraging. We know that B&Q can be seen as a difficult business to which to present innovation or newness so in my categories we wanted to address this and give suppliers of all sizes the opportunity to present. My buying teams believe that they have found upward of 100 new products that will make their way into our assortment over the next few months. We hope to repeat the day several times per year.”

Companies interested in taking part in future BHETA ‘Meet The Buyer’ events should contact BHETA on 0121 237 1130 or email pg@bheta.co.uk or wj@bheta.co.uk in the first instance.

Source: BHETA
http://bheta.co.uk/first-meet-the-buyer-event-success-with-bq/